A Good Question

Reported yesterday. 1309 staff from DHBs across the country have been stood down following their choice to not vaccinate by the deadline of 15/11/2021. In an already stretched healthcare system, this is a substantial loss.

“The overwhelming majority of stood-down staff - where their employment was named - were nurses at 463.” There will be a few doctors and other medical staff in the remaining 700 or so, but if there are fewer than three in a named role in a particular area, they wouldn’t be identified to protect privacy.

These are people who have been on the frontline, taking risks daily for the last 18 months. Anyone mildly curious would ask why so many healthcare workers, including nurses, are hesitant to get the Pfizer jab? After all, we can’t exactly claim that they don’t understand medicine.

This outcome is in line with what’s happened overseas. There’s research which seeks to quantify and understand why so many Health Care Workers (HCWs) are hesitant, to the point they would rather leave their profession than take the jab.

In a survey of Israeli HCWs the percentage of nurses who indicated yes to their vaccination intention was 61% (39% in the no group) compared to 78% for physicians and 75% of the general population saying yes. In the USA only 36% of HCWs said they were willing to get jabbed, with 56% saying they weren’t sure and wanted to wait until more data was available. Low acceptance rates were also seen with nurses in Hong Kong.

In these studies, the reasons given by HCWs were:

1) Safety concerns over the speed vaccines were developed and mRNA technology

2) Preference to achieve natural immunity as opposed to vaccine immunity

3) Lack of trust in Governments and health organisations

4) Personal freedom and autonomy (resistance to coercion)

The online paper (with the above studies referenced) provides recommendations to overcoming this hesitancy. It comes across as patronising in places – just communicate harder and let them feel like they have a say.

As if we haven’t had the messaging rammed down our throats relentlessly? Considering the most recent research showing superiority of natural immunity, lack of vaccine durability plus infection and transmissibility, irrespective of vaccination status, the reasons cited for hesitancy look, reasonable.

It presupposes that HCWs are not capable of making rational choices. The online article goes so far as to suggest a level of cognitive weakness – these HCWs may be influenced by people online (who are not singing from the Government approved hymn sheet).

Many experienced doctors with specialised knowledge are indeed online and providing alternative perspectives based on their professional knowledge. People such as Dr Peter McCullough have full medical caseloads but he still finds time to extend his reach, educating thousands more people via digital platforms.

Time will tell. One day these ‘rogue’ doctors online could well be known as the hero dissenters with courage and foresight, and not the villains they’re being painted as.

The fact that 56% of HCWs in the USA study said they wanted to wait until more data was available, suggests a cautious and rational choice is being made. They’re certainly not lazy and ‘too busy watching Netflix to get vaccinated’, as Mike Hosking scornfully suggested of the vaccine hesitant in New Zealand.

These HCWs may even be aware that this isn’t the first time vaccines have been rushed into circulation, only to be withdrawn just as quickly over safety concerns. This is what happened in the 2009-10 Swine Flu pandemic where millions of people were vaccinated in Britain and Europe. The Pandemrix jab was withdrawn after a sharp rise in narcolepsy was seen. Legal cases for compensation were still being heard in 2017.